catch
by Qwirk
Summary: Finn and Quinn have had a rough time over the past years, but when they are reunited due to Quinn's daughter, can they begin to love each other again? Chapter titles are named after the songs in Jimmy Eat World's album Futures
1. futures

**Disclaimer: You know the drill**

Mistakes, choices, secrets, hurt, sadness and the rare gem of joy. Those words describe simply the essence of life.  
For Quinn Fabray life would only be described as mistakes, choices, secrets, hurt and sadness, there hasn't been a single moment of joy. Not since she was nearly seventeen, she had lost her youth then, now even though she was only 21 and a half, she felt as if she 40. The weight of the world would be on her shoulders, she had so many things to care for, she worked every morning with her jobs that is if you consider singing on the street with your guitar, then she had to attend classes in the evening, then she had to go home around 9 PM where she would tuck her daughter to sleep and repeat the same thing over again. She had decided not to give away her baby, it only made her feel more guilty of what she did. But it was a weak choice. She rarely saw her daughter who went to a school she could barely pay for, spent the evening with one of Quinn's friends and slept one hour before Quinn returned to _Rachel's_ apartment.  
Life was going to be hard, for the rest of her life.

"Hey girl," Quinn said softly. Her four year old daughter poked her head fro  
"Mom," the girl said. She was Puck's child with his brown eyes, she seemed to be like Finn with her unassuming, happy nature and elfin ears, she was Quinn's child with her dirty blonde hair and smile. But Quinn only felt like her daughter only seemed to be her daughter. There was no father figure in her daughter's life but Quinn knew she could survive this.  
"Claire," Quinn smiled, "It's Saturday, do you want to go and see your uncle Artie?"  
Claire shook her head.  
"How about Aunt Mercedes?"  
Claire shook her head.  
"You wanna see Mr. Shue?"  
Another no. Quinn bit her lip. "You just want to stay home and lie around?" Claire smiled.  
"No," her daughter said, "Mom, I want to see Daddy."  
Quinn's heart sank, she had never let the child see her father, but she knew that even though Puck was the actual father, he wouldn't be the "daddy" Claire talked about. He would never be. And Finn? Quinn mustered a smile to face her daughter as she thought about him and how she had hurt him so much.

"Dude, this is your fifth cup of coffee. You're going to be very high by ten o' clock."  
"I always spend my morning like this," Finn said gruffly. He was 22 but honestly he seemed to be at least twenty years older. He hadn't shaved in a long time, a beard grew scruffily on his face and he probably hadn't shaved his legs in well a long time. No one would want to talk to him, he got mood swings often and he had never seen his daughter. Puck had never seen her too and they had never made up about Quinn.  
Rachel told him Quinn named her daughter Courtney or something else that started with a C and that the girl had grown up without a father. He knew that Quinn had probably told stories of the girl's "father". He sighed and swallowed the last bit of coffee when he noticed a a young girl walking hand in hand with an older blonde woman. Finn pushed his hair away from his eyes to see the girl more clearly. She had brown eyes, blonde hair but more noticeably a playful grin. He looked at the woman, supposedly her mother and then bit his lip.  
It was Quinn. He then looked at himself, an unruly brown beard, mood swings and an extra bulk of fat. Finn turned his eyes back to Quinn, she had grown a little rounder from the pregnancy but she still had long thin legs, beautiful blonde hair and those sparkling green eyes.  
"Who is that?" He asked the waitress in the coffee shop pointing the girl, Quinn's daughter.  
"Oh that's Claire Fabray," the waitress said smiling, "Very bright girl, she's only four and a half years old but she's one of the brightest kids in her kindergarten class."  
Finn's heart pounded, "What about the woman next to her, she looks pretty young, is she the mother?"  
The waitress (whose name was Suli) sighed sadly, "That's Quinn. Teen pregnancy, bad stuff. She was promising you know. Now she just plays her guitar and sings for money, she's really good, wonder where she got her training. Lives with that star on Broadway, Rachel something. But everyone likes Quinn, she's been in Lima for her whole life, everyone knows her very well." Suli turned to Finn, "How long have you been here to not know Quinn Fabray?"  
"Two months since I've moved back here," Finn admitted. He had dropped out of school in junior year, it was too stressful for him ever since Quinn had left to take care of the baby -Claire- and she couldn't tutor him. They weren't on good terms anyways.  
"You must not get out often then," Suli said. She picked up Finn's coffee mug and walked away muttering, "Nice kid, that Claire, cute, smart, awesome kid."  
Finn sighed and looked out the window once more but Claire was gone.

"Cause, spring and summer flew by so fast, memories and pictures of the past, ohhhh, you brought me down, but I didn't want your help" Quinn sang while strumming lightly on her guitar, "Cause, I thought I loved you, I guess I was wrong, but when the future comes, I know that I'll be strong." A bypasser pulled something out of his pocket and dropped it in her guitar case as she sang the last note. Quinn sighed and then began strumming lightly on her guitar. It was a nice tune, she hadn't written a song for it yet but it seemed to be the song that always got her through every Monday, or in fact the whole week.  
"She smiles at me," Quinn began, "And for once I think there's nothing wrong, but she reminds me of the mistakes I made, all along." Quinn then began strumming hard and strong. The words were now coming easily to her. "She says I'm a perfect mom, she says that I'm the most wonderful woman on this little planet, she makes me feel good for once, but I know that it's all wrong, cause I'm not a perfect woman, even though I try to be, and it breaks my heart every time when I know how much she believes in me." Quinn continued her song surprised at how easily the words flew out. People stopped to listen for more than just a few words and dropped money into her case. She sighed when she finished, it was already one in the afternoon, she would usually continue until it was three but by the amount of money she had just earned in the last three and a half minutes, she decided that she would go back home.

"Hey Rachel," Quinn said as she opened the door to her apartment  
"Hey Quinn," Rachel said from the couch. Rachel technically owned the apartment but Quinn co-signed the lease so it was their apartment. Rachel was watching some tapes of the Broadway shows she had been in while in college (Quinn was living with Tina and Artie during that time), now she only did minor singing and acting roles and honestly missed the big screen. "You're home early," Rachel said, on her lap was a tub of ice cream and a spoon.  
"Yeah," Quinn sighed and joined Rachel on the couch. "I made sixteen dollars and seventy two cents in the last five minutes.  
"That's brilliant Quinn," Rachel said, "I just got signed to Way Off Broadway Records. My first studio album is expected to come out in March, so for the next five months I'll be recording most of the time."  
"Awesome," Quinn said. "Then who's going to pick Claire up from school?" Rachel did it most of the time and sometimes Kurt or Tina did it but Quinn had never remembered if she had ever done it.  
"Well," Rachel said, "Perform like that every day, well maybe you could do it."  
"Yeah," Quinn said reluctantly. "Hey can I have some ice cream?"

Shaving a beard for the first time in well, he couldn't remember., is like having your first kiss. It has some tension and a lot of awkwardness. Finn gulped remembering his first kiss with Quinn after eighth grade. The memory hurt. Even more than trying to shave his beard.  
To put it simply. He had no idea how to shave now. Why was he even shaving? Because he wanted to see Claire, Suli had said that she went to the local kindergarten (there was only one kindergarten) and well, they let out at two thirty and he just wanted to see her. Even though she wasn't his daughter. She's just like Quinn.  
First time shaving is not an easy job, as Finn figured out.

Quinn yawned. She took a look at the screen before blinking her eyes and going to sleep.

Finn walked towards the local kindergarten. Act casual, don't let her notice you, he thought. He watched as tons of kindergarteners came pouring out of the door where their parents were waiting. He couldn't see Claire yet.  
Until the end.  
When all the other kids were gone.  
And there was only one girl with beautiful yellow hair standing.

**AN: So, what do you think? In the next chapter I'll write about Finn's interaction with Claire and him meeting Quinn.**


	2. just tonight

**So sorry for the wait! But this makes up for it I guess. My USB crashed, and lost all my confidence and then I decided to write it again.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anythign and never will.**

"Play cool," Finn murmured as he saw the pretty, young girl, the spitting image of her mother. He pulled out his cell and dialed Rachel's number

"Hello?" A sleepy voice on the other end replied.

"Rachel," Finn said flatly. "I'm at the kindergarten, Claire's there. She's alone. There's no one else."

"You're at the WHAT?" Rachel asked sharply. She calmed down and did some breathing exercises. "Okay, can you pick her up?"

"She doesn't even know me!"

"How long has she been standing there," Rachel asked. Her voice was muffled as if she was eating something.

"It's been twelve minutes," Finn replied.

"Pick her up please," Rachel sighed, "I don't want to leave Quinn alone in the apartment."

"If I pick her up and I bring her home," Finn argued, "Then I have to see Quinn."

"Exactly," Rachel said, matter-of-fact.

"You want me to talk to her?" Finn asked, shocked. "Do you want me to kill myself?"

"You NEED to talk," Rachel said smoothly, still eating whatever made her sound so happy and muffled at the same time.

"You're trying to make me talk to her," Finn said. Rachel made a 'duh' sound through the phone. "Why?"

"Well, because you guys were a cute couple." Rachel replied. "I was jealous. I thought I liked you, but I was wrong, we didn't work out. Yu guys, however, cuter than Claire."

"She's Puck's daughter, not mine." Finn protested defensively.

"Just bring her home," Rachel sighed, "You do have my address, right?"

"Yeah," Finn said, "I'll bring her back. But if she refuses to follow me, then I'm calling you."

"Sure, let me just finish my ice cream first," Rachel said. "Oh, you did shave did you? You looked like a barbarian with that beard."

"Goodbye Rachel."

Claire sat down on the floor. Neither her uncles or aunts were here. Aunt Rachel wasn't here. Mr. Shue wasn't here. And her mother as always wasn't here. She sighed sadly and pulled out a picture from her backpack. Claire unrolled it and laid it on the lap of her sunshine yellow dress. It was a picture of her mom, but instead of the sad expression and mournful green eyes, it was based on a picture her aunt Rachel showed her. From before Claire came. The drawing of course was nto up to par with the photo, but Claire considered it something wonderful.

For she had never seen her mother before with shining eyes, a happy, coy smile on her face and short red and white dress.

Suddenly Claire heard footsteps, she saw a tall man walking towards her. He looked nervous but Claire still smiled at him.

"Hello," she said, "Who are you?"

The nervous man, instantly relaxed. He sat down with her and looked briefly, albeit sadly, at the drawing in her lap.

"My name's Finn. I was a friend of your mom's." The man said. He had a certain emphasis on was. But Claire didn't care. She laughed happily.

"Are you here to take me home? Because no one else is here." Her expression was curious and inquisitive.

"Umm," Finn said, "I better check with your teacher."

Just as he said those words Ms. Lanningham, the kindergarten teacher Finn used to have a case of puppy love about, walked out to them and saw him.

"Ahh, Finn Hudson," she said, her voice with a hint of disgrace. She was definitely older and less prettier than Finn remembered. "Come here, finally?"

He was bewildered. "She doesn't know who's the father, she's just believing the old rumors," he realized.

"Yeah, it's me," he said in a high, uncomfortable voice, "Can I take her?"

Ms. Lanningham looked from Claire to him. Then she sighed, "Have you cleared it up with her mother?"

"Uh, yeah, I just called them a few minutes ago and they said it was fine," He hesitated.

"No, I mean have you cleared _it _up with her mother yet?"

"That...no," Finn replied.

"Okay," Ms. Lanningham paused. "You may go."

Claire gleefully sprang up and grabbed his hand. He led her slowly out of the school, with one last look at Ms. Lanningham, shaking her head.

DING! DONG!

The doorbell rang, more ominous than ever. Finn stood with Claire in front of the door, anxious to see the sight of her mother, angry as ever, not at her daughter, but at him. It felt as if there was the dark, serious Latin chanting behind him, as he heard the doors unlock and slowly open, creaking a little.

"Hey Finn," he was greeted by the sight of Rachel, still in her pajamas, eating a melted tub of ice cream.

"Aunt Rachel!" Claire screamed loudly and hugged Rachel's pink pjs. "Is mommy home?"

"Yes, Claire. She made enough money to keep someone like you all warm and healthy," Rachel smiled. "You can come on in and go talk to her."

Claire ran inside happily still holding the drawing.

"I-I-I guess I should go," Finn stuttered. He started off, until Rachel gave a rude, sharp whistle.

"I was talking to you."

"Ohh crap!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE?"

Quinn had just awoken, hugged her daughter, saw Finn, asked her daughter to go to the bathroom, then yelled those six words. In that order.

When you see your first love for once in over four years, you usually expect something happy, joke about the old times, congratulate about finishing college, getting married or having a baby. But this reaction was one, Finn completely expected.

"Rachel told me to do it," he said quickly.

"You guys need to talk." Rachel said sharply. She left the living room and waited for Claire to come out of the bathroom, still holding her tub of ice cream.

They sat down on the couch, staring straight ahead at Rachel in her own musical. It was the last show she did, before settlign back in Ohio.

Quinn sighed and turned off the television and the tape player. She turned to Finn and sighed. He looked exactly the same a little rounder but it looked like he worked out a lot in one day, but he smelled...of aftershave. Did he really have to be here? Now? On one of her happiest days. It was just too painful.

"Get out." She said quietly.

"I'm gonna be on the roof if you need me," he said, completely ignoring her.

"Get out." She said again, a little louder.

"I'm not going to return to my apartment tonight. I'll be on the roof."

"Get out!" She said, her voice brittle and fragile.

"Because, for just tonight, I'm going to wait.'

"Get out!" She yelled.

"And is just tonight, doesn't work, then I guess I'll leave."

"Get out." She said, softly this time, nearly to tears.

Finn stood up and walked towards the last time he turned around to say something.

"Do you still sing?"

"Yes," she nodded, tears rolling down her face.

He closed the door.

That night, it was raining heavily. Quinn was in her room playing a few chords on her guitar.

She couldn't sleep, Claire however, snoozed happily in a smaller bed next to hers.

The rain split splattered against the glass of her window. It fell down fast, disappearing faster.

She wondered why he had come. _To mock me? To steal Claire away from me? She's not even his daughter!_ Quinn sighed. She fought the urge all night to go outside to the roof.

_Or maybe_, she thought, _no. No. That can't be why he's here._

_Was he still on the roof? He couldn't be. Because if he was that meant only one thing._

He loved her.

But, what about Claire? Quinn looked over at her sleeping daughter. She liked him right?

_Claire is my daughter and my daughter alone_, she thought firmly.

"Look," she murmured, "If you want to go to the roof, go there. If you don't, don't."

Part of her wanted to go. Part of her thought it was too painful.

The rain hit the glass and vanished.

"He's probably getting sick." She said quietly, "But you shouldn't care about that."

Or maybe you should.

Suddenly she saw a flash of light and a loud crackle. Quinn jumped and put on her old sneakers. She opened her small closet and grabbed a hoodie. Quietly, Quinn tiptoed outside.

"I am such an idiot," she told herself. Slowly she went outside and locked the door. Quinn clabered up the stairs slowly until she made way to the roof. Opening the door, she stuck a hesitant foot outside.

Gathering all her nerve she pushed her way through.

Surpisingly she wasn't wet.

A large tarp hung over her, shielding her from the rain, lightning and thunder. She saw Finn sitting downat the edge of the building, not scared that he was hanging five stories above the ground. Quinn made her way and sat next to him.

He turned and saw her. "Qui-"

She didn't let him finish and covered his mouth with hers.

It lasted eighty three seconds. When they pulled apart. She gave a small smile.

Back in the apartment, Claire suddenly awoke. She looked over to her right. Mommy wasn't there, but she was too tired to react. Instead she looked at the photo Aunt Rachel gave her. The one of when Mommy was a young teenager. Smiling, laughing, in a red uniform.

Claire closed her eyes and fell asleep.

For it was tonight that the girl who lost everything smiled again. And her daughter somehow knew she was happy.

**BUT WAIT THAT'S NOT THE END OF IT!**

**Third chapter's coming soon (hopefully not another wait). I really hope you guys still enjoy this.**

**-Kate**


	3. work

**Disclaimer: Never been much of a creative person. That's why I write fanfic. Also, just a note, this has been made into a sort of AU-ish that took after the middle of the first season because that's when I started writing this. I'll try to incorporate as many elements as I can but it can't be guaranteed.**

Quinn woke up the next morning, still surprised to see the tarp hanging over her. Maybe it had always been there. She really wasn't the type to get up on the roof, even though she knew that Rachel took Claire up there to point out dull day-to-day observations in sleepy surburban Lima. _Wait,_ she thought, _why am I up here?_ She looked up and saw Finn sitting on the edge of the building drinking a cup of coffee. Oh no... oh. Well, she was fully clothed, so she must have just fallen asleep. _Only_ falling asleep and nothing more.

But still, she vaguely remembered their reconciliation the night before. A hug and a kiss and a conversation. That was it.

"What time is it?" She asked with a yawn.

"Six thirty in the morning," he replied. He wasn't wearing a watch nor was there a clock nearby. "Coffee?" He looked at her with a cheesy grin and offered her the cup that rested next to him.

"Sure," Quinn sighed and took the cup. "I didn't know that the Lima Bean would be open this early." She flipped open the small plastic tab and inhaled the familiar smell of hazelnut latte. Her favorite.

"Well, the point of coffee is to keep people awake until three in the morning," Finn said, taking a large sip of his coffee.

Quinn smiled, "Wise words." She sat down just beside the ledge, not daring to look down.

Finn laughed. It wasn't a loud laugh, but with the silence of Ohio below them, it rang like a high-decibel peal of happiness.

Before she could find herself falling for him again, she reminded herself of an important issue.

"Claire doesn't know you," she emphasized, "Technically, you're a total stranger that she followed home." Her mind almost went back to her high school HBIC mode.

Finn bit his lip. "Well, from what I've heard her pre-school teacher still thinks I'm the father."

Quinn retracted. Touche.

"Better you than Puck," she muttered quietly.

"Oh," he murmured. His tone cheered, when he followed that up with, "so, where is Puck now?" He had honestly never seen his 'best' friend since his last day of high school and even though his life may have broken down along the way, his iron commitment was to ignoring the Facebook updates that he saw. That was, when he got access to a computer.

"Well, all I heard was that he never finished community college and he works at a drugstore or maybe a 7-Eleven that I've vowed never to visit," she says, her once-vulnerable voice taking on full control. "Every year he sends Rachel a Hanukkah card. I'm sure he's probably asking her whether or not Claire is going to have a bat mitzvah."

Finn gave a slightly sad, but slightly happy smile. That definitely was his best friend.

"Why is Rachel here?" He asked quietly. "I mean, it's only slightly awkward seeing her again, but shouldn't she be on Broadway or London or that other place where they have all of those plays?"

"Well, she graduated from New York and then she pretty much landed a role on Broadway. And then a couple weeks later, she broke her neck."

"What?"

"A stage prop fell on her. But, well, you know how she is," Quinn smiled wistfully, "she swore that she was never fit for the stage again, then she moved back here about eight months ago, bought an apartment and then I moved out of Kurt, Blaine and Mercedes' apartment and into hers. I think they have a running bet going on when she's going to go back to New York."

Finn nodded and sipped his coffee. It was slightly depressing since he knew that one of the biggest things that Rachel's always wanted was to sing on a Broadway stage, but her optimistic personality would make the best of it and probably call herself a 'Broadway martyr'.

"And that's what it is," Quinn suddenly said coldly. She drank down the rest of her latte and set it on the ledge. "Kurt likes to call it a city of Lost In Motion Aspirations because he's got a thing for acronyms. Somehow, even though we can travel as far away as we want, everything just crashes down and we all come back to this toilet. I busk now and I waitress because I had a child to take care of. And that brings us to the important question. Where have you been all this time?"

Finn suddenly found the horizon a magnificent thing to stare at.

Oh, who was he kidding? The question was inevitable. They would come to it somehow.

"I've been in Lima for about ... two months," he admitted. Quinn bit her lip. Of course he had.

"And where have you been before that?" She said, her voice slightly bitter. "You didn't come back after the middle of junior year."

He sighed. "I've been drifting ... wandering ... still trying to figure out what to do with my life."

"Oh," she muttered quietly. "And then you came back here. Like everyone else did."

He sighed and set his coffee cup down. "I've been staying at a motel, the one that the Evans's family now manages. They um, they let me stay free of charge."

Quinn nodded. After graduation, Sam's father had recently acquired a job at the motel that they used to stay in and sheltered her for a while, at least until she moved in with Mercedes and Kurt.

"Are you working?" She asked.

"No," he admitted. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad because he wasn't as badly suited as some of his old classmates, who didn't even graduate, the bad part was that he wished that he'd at least taken up work at some place to avoid the manifestation of I-thought-you-could-do-better Quinn, or as he called it Tutor Quinn.

"So you leave," she murmured, "You come back. That's it?"

"That's it," he felt a gulp down his throat.

"Did you lose the football scholarship too?" Her eyes narrowed as she leaned over the ledge and looked down at Ohio.

"I had a football scholarship?" He muttered confused. "To where?"

She sighed and gave a weary smile. "Look, I've got to pick up my morning shift," She grabbed her coffee cup, scooted backwards and stood up a safe distance away from the ledge. "You, go do something important."

Finn looked down quietly before realizing that her tone was hopeful and if possible, slightly happy.

"I thought that you'd be disapp-" He began to say. She cut him off.

"You were pulling a D in Biology," she said with a slight turn of her head, "I helped you get a B ... minus. And I'm not going to even think for one second that at least Puck graduated with straight Cs. Now, if you don't mind me, I'm going to go inside, get the spare key to Breadstix and I'm going to go and make a living."

With no other words, she clicked her heels and promptly entered the apartment building.

_Well, that was unexpected_, Finn thought happily. She looked much more grownup now, maybe it was just because she had a kid, but he knew that he was still older than her by months and look at him. He had a beard for goodness sake's! And it wasn't the kind that Kurt used to hope it was.

But Scary Quinn would have probably slapped him across the face. He looked down back at the city of Lima, it really was a place of Lost In Motion Aspirations, the only problem was that he just failed without even trying to succeed.

Finn fell back and stood up, accidentally knocking the coffee cup over. Well, that would be a nice surprise for someone, he thought. He pulled out the disposable cellphone that the Evans's had given him. The rain had soaked it through and through. He cursed to himself and ran through the open door down into the apartment.

As fast as he could run, which wasn't as fast as it was in high school, he sprinted quickly to Apartment 4D.

Rachel opened it, still in her pyjamas.

"She went that way," Rachel said matter-of-factly pointing to the nearest staircase..

"Hey, can I borrow your phone?"

Rachel paused and stared at him. "So you're not running after her romantically to pledge and declare your love?" He shook his head. "Odd," she shrugged. "My cell's on the table but I'm supposed to hear from my lawyer about the contract I just signed so you can use the home phone line. It's in the kitchen."

"Thank you," he said and rushed into the apartment.

Looking at his still running body, Rachel called out, "Just so you know, you can have some of the profiteroles. We ate all the ice cream!"


End file.
